Only to be Distracted
by Nokomarie the Snake
Summary: Evil Baby. Evil pickle pot. Life is complicated. Repost and repair of a corrupted file. The story that came before Dogs in Tokyo, if anyone's interested.
1. Default Chapter

Rumiko Takahashi is a great person and owns everything she ever wrote. I am not so great. My version of events is my own, however, and in no way her fault

M for misery--or mochi cakes Which I actually like as long as no-one tries to serve them to me as soup. I am starting from chapter 292 of volume 30 thanks to Chris Rijk's translations.

Will Inuyasha ever admit how he feels for Kagome? Will they survive? Good luck; it's either the end or the beginning. Originally posted March 2003

ONLY TO BE DISTRACTED

PROLOGUE: THE PLAYERS GATHER

The hanyou relaxed, allowing the branch he was on to rock him gently in the slightly chill autumn air. Kagome would be coming up the path soon, wearing her odd form-fitting bathing suit. What that did to preserve her modesty he had yet to understand since it left onlyher actual skin to his imagination. But all of her clothing was like that: deliciously indecent while she was both indecorous and demanding her privacy at the same time.

He smiled and stretched out a hand to pull off some bark from a tree limb and crumble it between his claws. The tree was slowing down into its winter cycle soon, as all of the forest would be.

A rising shriek cut across his nerves, causing him to break the branch he was touching. He saw it begin its fall to the ground as he leaped to his feet on his tree limb, unconsciously balancing as he cast about him for the source of the noise.

A desperately gasping kitsune streaked beneath the tree carrying the remains of a broken pickle-pot and dripping pickles in his small hands.

Immediately behind him ran a near-naked miko. Her ivory skin was flushed and wet hair slapped against her back as she stumbled to a halt at the crest of the hill.

"Shippou! Just give the pot back! Kaede-bachan's going to kill us anyway!"

Kagome clapped a hand to her chest with a wet slap and shivered, clasping her goose fleshed arms about her self. There was a slight cold breeze that made her ears burn in her wet hair and her joints ache.

There was a deep chuckle above her and she found herself looking through the dripping bangs, which were plastered to her forehead, to regard the half-youkai.

"Baka, you won't be catching that kitsune this side of the hill. He's already tossed that broken pot away and hared off into the woods."

Inuyasha dropped through the tree branches to land easily on the ground.

"Come on, the broken pot can wait. I've been wanting to talk to you but you always seem to be busy these days." He did not look back to see the flash of half-hopeful half-bemused expression.

She really had not known what to make of him since he came through the well to pick her up a week ago. In most ways his attitude remained unchanged. But his attention seemed more firmly fixed on her than ever. As if some doubt had been put aside and he now just bided his time.

He slid off his suikan and dropped it over her shoulders. "I guess we can pick your stuff up at the pools. If you want " He would rather have left it.

"I really need my things." she replied. She waited for some enlightenment as to what the big subject was but in vain until she had collected all of her things and shouldered the bag to bring it back to the village.

"Um, Kagome," he started, "it looks like Naraku has gotten almost all of the shikon shards. I guess we don't really have such a great record in that department. We have to get the last few to stop him but three of them are important to people we know. Kouga has those two in his legs, the cheat." Kagome just looked at him. "The other one is in the back of Kohaku, and it will kill him when it's taken." She frowned and walked on, looking away from him.

"From what that mind-controlling baby of Naraku's was saying while you were passed out there are only one or two more left to be found. Kagome, the odds are getting very high of us losing." Inuyasha stopped her with a hand to her elbow. "I want you to pull out. This all seems too much. I want you alive, Kagome, alive and happy even if I never see you again."

She spun to face him. "I thought we had been all over this." She said determinedly. "I'm in until you really don't want me anymore. I chose this. Do you really want me to go?"

"Kagome, I ... Gods fuck me! What if I can't protect you? What if Naraku gets you again? What if the whole thing blows up in our faces and you are caught?"

"Since when did you do so much thinking Inuyasha? What if you got your heart's desire? Then we would all have a little peace until you find something else you want." She daringly brushed his lips with a kiss and spun lightly out of his grip to start in a jog in the direction of the village. "Look for Shippou and find out what he thinks he's done!" She called back over her shoulder. She saw him hesitate and then break off in a new direction.

"That's funny. I thought Shippou came this way." She bent down and retrieved some broken pieces of clay pot and carried them the rest of the way cradled in her hands, comforted both by the warmth of the fire rat's fur and the faint tang of forest and warm Inuyasha. She carried the broken pot pieces before her as if they were an offering. It was not a long walk to the little house at the edge of the village where Kaede sat separating her herbs in the autumn sunshine.

"Kaede-sama, I'm so sorry but it seems that your pot broke. Inuyasha has gone to retrieve Shippou and ask him why he ran away."

"It is good that Inuyasha is showing some sensebut a shame about my pickle pot." Kaede said calmly, receiving the broken pot from Kagome's hands. "You have perceived no further rumor of Shikon Shards?"

"No." Kagome sighed and dropped down to the dirt where Kaede was crouched sorting herbs. "There hasn't been all week. It's as if there aren't any more. I guess there must be though. Inuyasha insists that the baby said so." Kagome winced away from the thought of that baby. The experience of having an alien presence in her mind sorting through the feelings in her heart and labeling them for its own purposes still disturbed her.

She gazed about her, feeling again that sense of dislocation that this area always gave her. Why, in her own time the steps were there right enough, but Kaede's house was a small bus stop and she would be currently sitting in the street in imminent danger of being run down. Actually, she still felt like she was about to be hit by a truck where she sat.

:::0:::

Inuyasha eased forward through the tall dry reeds by the lake, difficult indeed to do silently. The kitsune continued to show promise, he thought. He had picked a good hiding place. Shippou had made two errors though; underestimating the persistence of his sensei and the simple fact that the pickles made him stink like nobody's business.

"Arrgh this is bad, what will I do?" muttered Shippou's gruff little voice. Inuyasha crept forward. Shippou came into view, just a thin screen of reeds between them.

The kitsune was sitting on the damp ground with what looked to be a large pale daikon pickle in front of him. The pickle was whipping back and forth however, more like some sort of tormented maggot than any respectably pickled vegetable matter.

It made a sudden twist and snap and was upon Shippou and almost before he could register it, Inuyasha lunged forward out of his cover, grabbed and, feeling his hand slide up the radish, found himself collecting a moving ledge of chilled mucus before it slid past his second hand and bit him in the leg.

"Yak!" He yelped. More from astonishment than any real fear or pain since even animated radishes don't have teeth.

Shippou reacted to save his hanyou more quickly than he could ever have done for himself. "Kitsune-bi!" he shrilled, slapping an ofuda on it. It became still.

"Inuyasha, please run and get another pot so we can bring this thing to Kaede-sama!" Shippou implored.

Inuyasha grunted and was off in a moment to the outskirts of the village only to quickly return with a large old pickle pot of antique design. "This was sitting out under a tree. It will have to do." The two demons pulled the stopper to dump the previous contents but the pot proved empty. They stuffed their prize into it.

Later that afternoon Miroku and Sango returned to Kaede's hut to find what appeared to be a war session going on. Kaede sat by the sullenly burning fire pit, feeding it twigs. Next to her was a large old pickle pot of a kind that had not been in the area for many years. An inconvenient sort, recalled Miroku, since once you sealed the pot you usually had to break it to get your pickle out.

Inuyasha had so far graced the activities by actually sitting up, but the center attraction was certainly Kagome and Shippou. Pouring over sheets of paper on the floor, which turned out to be a map of sorts showing the village and some five miles around near as Miroku could tell.

Sango went to the fire to start to doff her armor and get ready for a bath. That was another thing, Miroku thought miserably. How was he to have known that the tavern keeper's girls would all be so pretty and that they actually had water in that central plaza's horse fountain? The headman of the town had thrown in an extra silver piece because the brave exterminator had taken a dunking in the fountain when her assistant had failed to spot her closely enough.

They had worked together so well for a couple of years. And then all that needed to happen was a few overly hair-raising adventures and some extra guilt and the next thing you know there he was, proposing marriage when he really... The pot jumped. "What do you have in there Kaede-sama?"

"We think it's a pickle demon," said Shippou darkly. "But you never can tell. Could be the pot."

Miroku wished he could think of that as a joke.

Sango quietly left. Taking her kit along with her. She might be back tonight; She might not. She was an adult and answered perfectly well to her own code of conduct. Miroku just watched her go in a silence that rapidly spread across the room.

:::OO:::

High up in the eastern mountains there was a deserted fane. What god or goddess it had served was long lost to time. But a graceful portico remained improbably suspended over a precipitous valley with little freshets of waterfalls sparkling out from the mossy cliffs and eventually combining to make a mist that obscured the bottom.

Kagura stood, holding a baby, her heart thudding uncomfortably. Naraku had spawned again, and this creature was worse than anything she'd ever been. She had to get out of this somehow. What was her status? Would she be free if Naraku went down or would she too be destroyed?

The baby appeared to be resting, it was certainly silent. Its violet hair a downy fluff on its head, eyes shut and delicate fingers still where they rested on the white baboon pelt.

Suddenly its voice sounded in her mind. "They are all there; the girl, the hanyou and their companions. No matter. They will not be able to intervene. I have divined the final Shikon shard. There remains only to collect the others: One from Kohaku and two from the legs of that fool Kouga."

"Well then where is the last?" Kagura queried.

"Haven't you ever wondered about the miko Kagome? Where she comes from and where she goes back to? I sensed a far different history in her thoughts than any others. A different world. There is significance in that Mimisenri of the Thousand Ears cannot always hear her. That she disappears, always from that village where the miko Kikyou first died. Where the Shikon-no-tama was lost, reappeared and was shattered."

The baby opened his eyes and smiled. "There is a different meaning to the threshold of this word and the next. It could be the metaphysical idea of death. This is a physical one. And the threshold is in that village or very close to it."

Kagura smiled too, now. Then it could be done.

The winds bore them where they wished to go.

::::000:::::

Sesshoumaru strolled along the banks of a particular river where he could recall having strolled before. On that particular occasion he had lost his left arm, lost to his younger brother and had to accept that the sword that had originally been left him by his unlamented father as the best he was going to get. Sesshoumaru admired restraint and the elegance of silk and steel above all things. He was beginning to think that his father had been inelegant.

Or had he? Obviously his unlamented sire had left a pair of very pointed patrimonies to his sons; A sword which only could be used for non-physical attacks and to heal; a sword which could not even be used at all unless in defense of a human and which forced an ever expanding awareness of the cosmos upon the user. No mater how crude. They were indeed causing changes in their recipients.

Sesshoumaru glanced briefly behind him at Rin. She was dozing in perfect comfort on the back of his beast. She believed it to be a two-headed dragon. This was not true but he wished all things to remain in her frame of reference. He was having enough trouble figuring out his own life.

There were two sparkling trails across the sky. Sesshoumaru smiled unseen in the darkness. All of the birdies coming home to roost... Including Naraku.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, where are we going?" said a sleepy little voice.

"Visiting." He replied

"Oh, good. I like visits."

"You should not presume to ask Sesshoumaru-sama questions! Do not put forward you paltry opinions!"

"I hate you Jaken!"

"Se---" a firm step landed on the speaker and there was just one more muddy lump left in the field. Only this one groaned, cursed and got up to follow.


	2. Time and Life

TIME AND LIFE

A faint red glow remained in the fire pit. The floor of the small house was, as usual these days, covered in wall to wall bedding. Miroku had had to get Inuyasha's help and exorcise a particularly virulent set of termites to get the closet cut into the wall of Kaede's home and lined properly in cedar in which to store all of this bedding. He had not received much support at the time but it did brighten their homecomings to be guaranteed good bedding without stressing their hostess.

Miroku was also the first one to see what came out of the pickle pot at just about moonset that night. He had to add it to his ever-growing list of things he simply did not want to remember.

The great old pot had been put into the coldest corner of the room. Nearest to the small spring that fed the grass outside. It was cool enough so there was no reason why the lid of the pot should make such a grating noise. All of the occupants of the little house were aroused by this loud sound and watched as the top popped off and a great glistening bulk reared itself up like some improbable tongue.

"Ayah!" Sango swept in with a short but wickedly sharp ladies dagger. Of course she slept armed Miroku sourly noted. Miroku swung to block the thing's retaliation with his staff

Shippou dug his hands furiously into his pockets and came up with a bunch of magic acorns of the wrong type.

"Hey, it's too small in here! Everybody out but Houshi-sama, the monster and me. Got it?"

Everyone got it and everyone was glad to hear Sango's contralto tones again. The door of the hut burst open and a tangle of people came out. Inuyasha appeared and attempted to both grab Kagome and help Kaede over the threshold at the same time with indifferent results. It was a very dark night.

:::0:::

Dark enough that when the now empty pickle jar unfolded spider-like legs and walked off into the darkness no one saw it go. Which is a pity since that was the very sort of thing they had been waiting for. Besides, the pickle jar was not completely empty.

At the edge of the fields, at the edge of the forest, two figures waited for their servant. They were outlined in the deeper black of the trees. The glitter of gems on one and the snowiness of the white pelt in which the other rested picked up the light of the stars.

Across the fields came the jar. Picking its way delicately on spider-thin legs, which ended in cruelly sharp claws. It was old, older than Naraku or his companions had any idea of. But it had been restored to life by Naraku's meddling and would repay this one debt before resuming whatever semblance of life pleased it.

It paused before the couple for a moment, balancing on its elegant, deadly legs and swiftly upended its body. A small, flat package fell out. Righting itself the jar headed north, much more swiftly than before and disappeared, either among or up into the trees at the north end of the field.

There was a considerable pause before the package was approached.

When it was opened Kagura sighed in wonder and the baby was pleased. It did so love misery.

:::00:::

Inuyasha sighed impatiently and stared around at the trees, stone steps, surrounding village that he had been looking at for, oh, say, the past forty minutes now. He could tell that his comrades in the house were in no difficulty just by the lusty yells they were emitting. He even understood that both of them had frustrations to work out. But he was bored and both Kagome and Kaede were on his short list of people who should have a full nights sleep.

He raised his voice. "YOU TWO! UNLESS YOU WANT TO LICK DAIKON PUREE OFF OF THOSE WALLS STOP NOW!"

There was a sudden breathless silence.

Into that silence came a breeze. Inuyasha forgot his boredom and turned his face to the waft of air that came across the fields. A familiar and hated scent, Kagura - and that evil baby.

"Kagome! Stay with Sango and Miroku. I need to check something out." He spun neatly on one foot and was off in a mighty bound. Kirara following.

"You know, this whole stay put and let me check things out deal is getting pretty old." Sango's voice sounded out of the dark. "It's my fire cat after all."

Closer to, both Sango and Miroku's scents were decidedly spicy, eye watering in fact.

"You two," pronounced Kaede "may inhabit the hut at the edge of my field. Kagome, I know that the headman will take us in for the night. He is surely awake."

Inuyasha stood in the center of what proved to be a bean field. He regarded the trees and finally zoned in on a particular area. He paced forward and then dropped to a crouch sniffing the ground with great care. "Old clay?" He sniffed some more and moved forward.

"Kagome. And those two." He sat back on his haunches. "I know where Kagome is so this must be a possession. This is not good."

He returned to the village with much to think about. It wasn't as if Naraku and his minions hadn't been to the village before. After all, Naraku's human originator had been a local bandit. In fact he rather thought that Shippou and Kagome had a point when they had drawn their maps showing the number of youkai attacks or Naraku appearances in the immediate area. They had missed quite a few of course, but Inuyasha saw no reason to tell them so. The point remained that after several months attacks in the immediate area had increased sharply while none were occurring outside of a five-mile radius.

He looked up and gazed outwards. The early moon was already setting and the breeze that lifted the ends of his hair was chill. Naraku, the baby who was Naraku's discarded heart and the death of Kikyou. He shivered, but not from cold. Kikyou had once told him in one of their strained, strange conversations after her resurrection, that Naraku could not kill her. That the human heart of Onigumo prevented that. She had been so coldly sure of herself.

But Naraku's human heart lay in the shape of a baby in Kagura's care. And the portion of that which had held affection for Kikyou was scattered in a thousand pieces, never to be rejoined. It seemed the preparation for that one event must have taken Naraku well over a year, as he progressed from one form to another. Forming and reabsorbing creation after creation. Kikyou must have told Naraku of Onigumo's heart too, and in so doing badly overplayed her hand. Kikyou had confronted Naraku one last time and fallen to have her body of mud and bones dissolved in a river of acid. He had searched, taking too much time over that searching and found only dissolved waste to come out of that accursed flow.

Kaede was right, time to put aside his guilty sorrow and let himself move forward. He could turn his face into the sunlight of Kagome's regard with a clear conscience. If she still wanted him that is. He had done as much in his blind insistence on honor and duty to ruin his chances as that idiot monk had done with his roving eye and need to father a child with any woman who would take him. Personally he rated the monk's chances as extremely low. Every time he had seen the monk go off with a girl she had turned out to be dead, or possessed, or a disguised monster, or really very ugly.

Inuyasha snorted softly then sobered a little. A bang sounded faintly in the distance across the fields. By narrowing his golden eyes he could just make out a solitary figure making her way along one of the dikes. No, he rated the monks chances poorly indeed.

He continued to watch sleeplessly from the rooftop of the headman's house. Ever after the headman's wife claimed that night as the reason why her hens failed to lay and she always ran short of egg money. Everyone knew she gambled, but that is another story.

:::000:::

Sango and Miroku trailed across the dikes of the local rice fields in silence. The harvest had been gotten in and each field lay fallow for a short time until the planting resumed again. Kaede's hut there was old and well built. It had once served as a jail of sorts for a frantic Inuyasha while he recovered from some rather spectacular wounds. The building had proved to be very easy to rebuild after Inuyasha was through with it.

Miroku led the way up the sharp embankment and unwound the rope that secured the huts door while quickly dispersing the non-invasion spells that kept the place secure and free of vermin. He pushed the door open and unhooked a lantern from the wall. "Sango, if you would please."

Sango quickly opened the small fire pot she carried and used a pair of green bamboo chopsticks to catch up a glowing coal and apply it to the wick. A quick puff of breath and it was alight.

Miroku nodded ands stepped in revealing a square room with raised racks on three sides. Implements and baskets were against the front wall and the floor had a couple of ancient tatami mats stacked on top of each other.

"That's it," Miroku said briskly. "I'll just step around back and clean up, you use the hut."

"It's nearly winter. Won't you feel cold?" Sango's warm contralto voice pinned him where he stood.

"It doesn't matter. I've sat beneath frozen waterfalls to meditate and this is just for a few minutes. Just let me in when you're ready and I'll sleep by the door."

Sango looked away from him, fingering her daikon-stained haori. "What about what you said?" Her voice was hesitant. "Do you want me?"

"Sango, you know I do."

"Why, then do you feel you must be unfaithful? Why go following after every girl of loose morals that you see?" She pressed her lips together. "I thought you said you wanted to marry me." A lone tear was visible on her cheek, but he knew she was not aware of it.

"Sango I said 'If'." That's a very big word. I said 'If when the battle with Naraku is over if the curse of my Air Rip is broken, and I'm alive, at that time...' "

"Stop it!" Her voice was imperious with tears. "I can't bear it."

"Please understand me." He caught at her only to have her cuff him away. "Sango, you know I have a mission!" She rabbit punched him in the chest, breaking the hold he had achieved on her arm. "Ow, gods, Sango!" He clutched at a wound in his shoulder that he had forgotten about.

She just stood tears running down her face. Her determined chin firm, but a tremble evident on her lips.

"I don't want you as the discarded woman of a doomed man! To bear my child without support! I want you as my wife, mother of my children. I want to have a future with you!" He was nearly in tears himself. "Someone has to destroy Naraku! If not me then my child. It seems the only way. But I will not condemn you to that. I want you in joy or I don't want you at all!"

"That is just really, very selfish. I know you will continue to be unfaithful, and continue to cheat on me until your requirements are met. Any amount of pain you cause is legitimate as long as you get your own way." she cleared her throat. "Thank you very much for making yourself clear Houshi-sama."

She left him sitting alone in the shed with the lamp for company. He swore viciously for a long while and then blew out the lamp to sit in the glooming, the shed door open, waiting for the dawn.


	3. To Know Your Tricks

CHAPTER 2: TO KNOW YOUR TRICKS

The next morning Kagome dragged her dirty yellow pack across the floor and started to pick through it. It was odd; it never seemed to get smaller no matter how many weeks she carried it. Maybe Inuyasha was right and she really just kept loading it until she couldn't carry any more. Must be anxiety, nowhere to call home.

She hummed a melancholy little tune that was the theme song of a movie that was the current rage. That was another thing, why do all the love stories end up so sad? She shifted some more stuff in her pack.

There was, she slid her fingers across her colored pencils, a hole in the box. She pulled it out and looked at it in puzzlement. She dug down deeper and came up with a fine silk scarf, shredded. "Oh!" more things were unearthed from the recesses of the pack, each with it's own injury.

Kagome was head and shoulders now into the pack, spilling its contents across the floor of the headman's hut. Her raven black hair caught in the zipper and she impatiently ripped it free, leaving behind several strands. She sat back stood up and took the pack by its bottom upending it and dumping an astonishing array of objects onto the floor of the vestibule.

"Who has been messing with my stuff!?"

:::0:::

Sango had actually had good nights sleep. Apparently, blowing up at Miroku was good for her. Maybe she should just beat him up and never let herself think of him again. She snuggled into Kirara's side considering this.

Sunlight was making its way through the cracks in the stable wall and Sango was a country girl at heart. So she got up to go to the bathhouse and then to scrub down Kaede's home.

When she returned across the square she had hot water in buckets suspended across her shoulders on a small yoke. Inuyasha could see her from his perch and considered helping but he had his own suspicions about the extent of the mess. Kill your youkai out in the open and then leave. That was the rule he lived by. If Sango was feeling self-sacrificing then it was time to make himself scarce. She was no better than Kagome about sharing what she called 'common responsibilities'.

As Sango rolled the door screen up with a brisk snap the hanyou was off in the opposite direction. He found Miroku making his way back from the rice fields and together they went to the place he had examined so quickly the night before.

"There's not much to be gathered from the tracks here but what are these bizarre marks?" Miroku was staring at a radiating pattern of punctures crossing the field not once but twice.

Inuyasha dropped dog-like to the ground and began to sniff his way along the tracks. "It's the smell I noticed last night. Like some kind of musty old pottery or something."

"Well, do you think you can follow it?" The hanyou snorted in response and crept off on all fours towards the tree line.

"What-cha tracken?" Shippou's voice behind him made Miroku jump. The kitsune had another of Kagome's treats. This one was a hard ball of candy on a stick that twirled around when you pushed a button. Miroku felt that the future people obviously had very strange priorities to even think something like that up.

"Inuyasha thinks we had visitors last night."

"Huh." Shippou twirled his stick thoughtfully. "Kagome can't find her game boy and says everything in her pack is all fucked up. She's really pissed."

"Inuyasha,"

"I'm busy."

"Inuyasha, someone's been messing with Kagome's pack."

The hanyou looked up at that. "Putting something in or taking something out?" he wanted to know.

"They took the magic picture box apparently. And damaged a lot of things doing it."

"Broken?"

"Punctured, like with a dagger." Shippou volunteered. He walked over to Inuyasha.

"Kagome pissed?"

"Extremely. What are all these little holes?"

"They belong to something that went in there." Inuyasha pointed to the trees. Miroku joined them.

"Good, let's follow it. Maybe it will keep us busy most of the morning." The other two solemnly agreed. Staying out of the village for a bit seemed very wise.

They moved among the thickets of trees following the odd, hole-like, tracks. Then as the undergrowth thickened the tracks stopped.

"Whatever it is, this thing can climb." Inuyasha indicated a series of parallel scrapes on the side of a tree. Miroku frowned and used his staff to poke up into the tree they were under. A movement to their left caught the corner of Inuyasha's eye and he spun to face it as a dark and spiny claw flashed past, slicing his cheek.

Shippou gave a shrill cry and dove forward away from the strange creature that had appeared so suddenly behind him. It seemed it was the pot they had taken from the center of the village the day before. Horribly transformed it reared up on numerous spider-like legs.

"What in the-" Miroku spun and looked at the ancient pot monster as it hit the ground, leaving good sized holes where it landed. Nobody had time to answer the houshi's unfinished question though, as the jar immediately lunged at the nearest body. "Inuyasha-behind you!" he called out instead as the jar just nearly missed the hanyou.

"I see it!" Inuyasha yelled spinning away to take a crack at it with his claws. "Shit this thing is quick!" He growled having to duck the jar on its rebound. The jar landed with a crack against a tree, and stuck there a few moments, its spine like legs penetrating the bark to hold it up.

Miroku instantly shoved his staff in front of him to bar off and block the jar's spines and strode forward, reaching into his sleeve for an ofuda. His eyes widened as the jar burped and turquoise liquid that bubbled and frothed and smelled to high heaven, like moldering earth, it came spewing forth, and began to eat into his robes. "Woah!" Miroku cried and using the staff launched the jar away sideways into another tree-narrowly missing Shippou.

"WAHH! INUYASHA!" the kit screamed as he dove out of the way of the spines that seemed to rotate in his direction. It wheeled about and leapt from its position just as Inuyasha's claws made another try for slicing contact.

"Senkontetsu!" Inuyasha cried, missing the jar entirely and instead slicing through the tree. "Damn it! Where the hell'd it get to now?!" He pulled back, his claws spread, the tree cracking in half and falling behind him. The three stood grouped in the center of the brush, watching with vigilant eyes for its next attack.

"I don't think I like fighting old pickle jars..." Shippou complained, latching on to Inuyasha's shoulder and trembling there. There was a rustle above them, and Shippou looked up just in time to see a few leaves fall from the tree and then sharp spines aimed straight for his head come straight after. "SHIT!" He screamed and jettisoned himself away.

Inuyasha-wasn't half so lucky. The thing landed squarely, knocking the wind out of him. The pot appeared to gurgle and turquoise goop oozed from its lip. Inuyasha could only wheeze and stare at it for an instant before Miroku stepped in and whacked the jar, sending it flying, and reached down to help him up. "Thanks..."

"All in our best interests. You are bleeding-"

"Keh! Fucking pot! Tetsusaiga!" Inuyasha called and launched off at the jar drawing and swinging the fang blade in a high arc towards the jar. The jar was much quicker and dodged the attack with great agility to make a leaping bound for the kit instead.

"WAH! It's after me now! Why?" Shippou hollered and spun his wheels to move quickly out of the jars way.

Miroku tried again to break the body of the pot with his staff before attempting to use his kazaana. "Move Shippou!" He cried as he made a solid strike. It however, countered deftly and rotated its lid, spitting out small black things-small black things with eight legs and pinchers, all over him. "Poisonous spiders!" the houshi backed off grabbing at his robes frantically, pulling off spider after spider.

While the monk was occupied, the jar went for the kitsune again, Inuyasha was ready for it. "Shippou! Out of the way!" Inuyasha called out as the Tetsusaiga began to glow, gathering the winds of youki that preceded the kaze no kizu. Shippou obediently made a sideways, split second dash to the left just as Inuyasha raised the fang blade up above him and began his attack. But again, the jar was too quick and was spitting out small pottery shards that landed near Inuyasha. These began to glow red and suddenly swirled up into the air encircling the Tetsusaiga. "What in the seven hells-" He barely had time to say that as the jar shards bombarded the fang blade and exploded all at once as they hit it. "AHH! Those shards-! They took away Tetsusaiga's transformation!"

"Oh no! We're doomed!" Shippou cried out just before he let out an ear splitting "AHH! HELP ME!" just realizing the jar had caught up and was in front of him, gurgling its turquoise acid and making threatening gestures with its razor sharp barbs.

"Shut up you twerp!" Inuyasha growled sheathing the blade and making a leap to where the jar was on top of Shippou to make another swipe at it with his good arm. "Senkontetsu!"

In response, the jar leapt from Shippou, pushing the kitsune aside and knocking him clear into a tree leaving him momentarily stunned, resulting in a black eye for later. "Oww..."

Inuyasha landed face first in the dirt. He just couldn't believe the things speed. Miroku saw what he thought was an opening and swung his staff in a hissing arc as hard and fast as he could.

The pot, some how sensing immediate danger from behind, lifted its lid and proceeded to spew out more spiders followed by exploding jar fragments and a sheaf of the turquoise acidic liquid all over the monk. Miroku backed off with a cry as Inuyasha struggled to get up. Inuyasha rose to his feet and the pot resumed its attack upon him stabbing him suddenly right through the gut; its spine like spear going straight through. Inuyasha cried out in pain, his eyes widening. He sucked in a gasp and spun around; knocking the thing off of him to a tree again-where it clung.

Miroku prepared himself and shoving his staff in the forest floor held out his right hand to rip the beads from it. "KAZANNA!" He cried and unleashed the air void. Everything in the immediate area began to get sucked in to the hole. The jar held on to the tree with its spines even though it was getting pulled in.

Shippou returned to alertness with the unpleasant sensation of being vacuumed up, he dug his little claws in and shrieked.

"Shippou—get back!" Miroku called, but to late—the jar had let out more spiders that went barreling towards Miroku's air void. Unsure of whether spiders had the same effect as Naraku's bees, he cursed and closed the kazaana up again just as the jar leapt out over a squealing Shippou and away into the forests undergrowth.

"Oww, fuckin-a, just when ya think you've learned it all the kamis of fate throw another shitter at ya!"

"Bouzu—have I ever told you how much of a hypocrite you are?" Inuyasha grumbled.

"I don't know...can't remember"

Shippou sat up, holding his ringing head. "Can we go back now? I can't remember when we last lost to a household item but I want to go home." His little face was sporting a massive bruise and Miroku quickly moved to pick him up.

Inuyasha got up rather more slowly; blood was soaking the front of his suikan. "We'd better leave and warn the others. I have almost never dealt with anything so fast. And this time I failed." He used the hilt of his scabbarded sword to support him.

"Inuyasha," Miroku looked at him seriously, "that was surely an ancient creature. You know they get stronger the longer they live." He bit his lip, "Which worries me incidentally, just how old are you?" Inuyasha looked surprised and spent a few moments thinking, "I was fifty years on the tree, right?" Miroku shrugged agreement. "Then I think I must be sixty-seven."

"What!" Miroku stopped dead in the middle of the path. "That makes you younger than me!"

"No, I said I was sixty-seven." he looked at Miroku levelly. "Not seventeen, I treat you as a companion houshi, but don't make assumptions about my experience." He gave a grumbling growl.

"How could you have gained experience cosmically wandering the universe while pinned to a tree? ...Oh."

Inuyasha walked slowly on debating the use of correct posture versus the urge to walk hunched over with his fist pressing against his injured stomach. Miroku spoke again. "So, if you know all this stuff, then why the confusion over Kagome and Kikyou?"

Inuyasha snorted, "Keh, even you should know that Kikyou and I were bound by karma. Bound again when she revived in this world but now it seems she has left it. That was not a healthy thing, no, but one I was bound by." He paused. "I want Kagome," he said suddenly and with startling passion. "I've wanted her since I first saw her but there were always problems in the way. Now they just seem like so much stupid stuff, totally unimportant."

He sighed. "I don't know how to tell her. So I keep finding myself just watching her instead...I like to watch her sleep. She does things, you know? Moves her hands and sighs and says some pretty funny stuff. I want to know what she's dreaming." He was silent as he eased himself down a steep ditch in their way. "Hell, I want to know what she's thinking most of the time" he resumed after regaining the path, "since what comes out of her mouth isn't it. She's always trying to cover up for everybody until she gets mad. I never know when she's going to get some crazy idea. I don't want to miss a thing."

Miroku shook his head, 'Boy, and I thought I had it bad' Miroku thought but carefully did not say. He paced along beside the hanyou, the rings on his staff sounding a soft counterpoint. Eventually he asked, "What help do you need from me?"

:::00:::

They arrived at the village, looking as if they had been a week in the desert. This was a good thing as their womenfolk moved immediately to take care of their needs and asked few extraneous questions Shippou was put to bed with the half of an overripe papaya fruit over his eye. Miroku was given salve to put on his acid burns after he bathed in the cold freshet of water that sprung from Kaede's hill and down into a fairly wide pool.

Inuyasha stood by the doorway of the hut until Kagome was satisfied about Shippou and then proceeded to look as if he were dying from exhaustion. She looked out of the hut at him in a measuring glance and he played up his piteousness to the hilt. Her face grimaced and closed, ready to turn away when she caught the slick glimmer of fresh blood on his suiken. She stepped quickly out.

"Why are you still bleeding?" She was pulling at his clothing ties. He placed a hand over hers, restraining her. She rapidly backed him up against the split rail fence.

"What the gods own fuck do you care, bitch?" He caught her hand, quite gently really and held it up between them. She was forced to look him in the face then and quickly dropped her eyes. "What are you thinking of, to go picking at me like that?" He questioned, his eyes half hooded in their heavy lids.

"Inuyasha don't tease for what you don't want." she said carefully and clearly, her blush painful. "I want you in good health."

His hands followed hers and caught her fingers again as she attempted to untie his suiken. "I'm O.K. Kagome."

"Miroku says not."

He raised his eyebrows, "Oh Miroku." he echoed rather rudely. He put his hands down on either side of his hips and let her have her way, presenting himself like some little boy in need of help with his clothes. This made Kagome pause, as nothing else would have. She blushed and hesitantly spread his clothing apart. In a moment she gave a distressed exclamation and gently removed the suikan and kosode altogether, showing a deep puncture that bled in a steady trickle and had its corresponding exit wound on his back.

It was a nasty hole and Kagome took her time over cleaning it. She could not help her awareness of just how close he was to her. He did not make it any easier, keeping his gaze on her face as she reached around his narrow waist to wrap the bandages about him. She could feel his body heat, and smell some scent that was peculiarly his own: A woodsy smell that the coppery odor of fresh blood could not cover. By the time she was done she was blushing furiously with her heart pounding in her ears. She just knew he could hear it. She finished the last knot with trembling fingers and flinched back as he moved suddenly and reached around her to grab his clothes from where they hung on the fence post.

He didn't speak but nodded briefly and brushed past her. He marched off over the hill and into the trees that concealed the small waterfall and pool that provided Kaede's water source. Once there he did not stop walking but marched straight in and sat down in the icy pool.

'Gods, what was the matter with me?' he thought miserably, 'Why can't I just take the girl and have done with it?' The flare of desire that followed that thought caused him to lie straight backwards into the water and spend a small space in time gazing up at the autumn sky through a wavering lens.

A dark flicker of movement on the bank caught his attention and was the only warning he had before a clawed hand sliced through the water and latched itself onto his shoulder. He reacted instantly, clutching at the assaulting hand and pulling the owner of it into the water with him.


	4. You Come Closest

YOU COME CLOSEST

The baby lay on his baboon skin, propped slightly with a silvery metallic-looking object in his hands. Kagura approached cautiously as he had become increasingly difficult to talk to as time wore on.

'Naraku has communicated.' the baby flicked his eyes at her although there was no way she could avoid his silent speech. 'Kouga has taken the bait and will be at the village within the hour. Go and observe but do not interfere. The hanyou will prevail surely. Take the shards if the opportunity presents itself but do not concern yourself otherwise. As long as the shards are in location the rest will fall into place.'

Kagura shifted restlessly and seemed ready to speak.

Naraku is coming soon. Best to go now.'

Kagura stifled any questions she had in the face of this news and left on a gust of wind.

The baby returned to his activity, tinny music sounding from his lap. Yes, another world. The baby smiled. The box on his lap sounded a victory tune.

:::0:::

Kagome had busied herself with collecting her first aid supplies and emptying slop buckets full of bloody water. Her mind roiled blankly, confused by the intensity of her feelings for the hanyou. 'Damn,' she had almost put her hands up to grab his hair and pull his head down so she could kiss him. That's how little self-control she had. Just get close to him and all good intentions of letting him have his space and not being a bother just went right out the window.

'He doesn't want you.' She reminded herself bitterly. Suddenly she felt an almost overwhelming sense of impending doom. Her face paled and she turned unerringly to the west.

"Kagome?" Sango spoke behind her.

"Shikon shards!" Kagome started to turn towards the house.

"I see a lot of dust in the air." Sango moved with her.

"It must be Kouga." Kagome muttered anxiously. She spotted something leaning by the fence, "The Tetsusaiga! How could Inuyasha walk off without it?" She trotted over to it and picked the old katana up. Just then the distant echo of an angry roar sounded over the hill.

Sango reappeared out of the house, Hiraikotsu over her shoulder followed by Miroku. "Kirara, circle and if anyone else is coming."

The fire cat transformed and leaped easily up into the air circling once and quickly disappearing from sight.

Water surged about him as he twisted to get his assailant under him. A pair of feet kicked upwards into his chest sending him up out of the water bringing his opponent up with him.

It was Kouga, snarling and already in a full battle rage. Inuyasha slammed a fist into his chest while retaining a clawed grip on his right arm. Kouga was driven backwards with Inuyasha's claws drawing long deep furrows into the flesh of his arm.

Inuyasha barked a laugh. First blood was his. "What the hell do you want Kouga? Come all this way for a friendly visit?"

Kouga ignored his bleeding arm and snarled, "Where is it, Dogface?"

Inuyasha shook water from his hair flexing his claws angrily. "Where's what you wimp?"

Kouga roared and leaped at him. Inuyasha jumped clear and laughed again.

"The Shikon-no-Tama! You've got it all Dogface! I'm taking that and Kagome too!"

"You even try touching her and I'll break both your arms!"

Kouga made a spinning attack ending in a high kick to Inuyasha's jaw. Inuyasha was flung backwards to land under the trees among some rocks. "Fat chance, Dogface! Why should she stay with a weakling like you? She's mine and she'll give me the shards too! You can't protect her." Kouga straddled Inuyasha's prone body as he shouted, bending down towards his face.

Inuyasha punched him straight in the jaw sending Kouga tumbling end over end to land face down in the stream. "Get up and fight!

Let's finish this now--Ka-go-me--stays--with--me!!!"

Miroku, Sango and Kagome reached the glade in time to witness the taunts and threats exchanged between the two demons. They watched in dismay as Inuyasha disdained all the more effective attacks and plunged headlong after the wolf youkai knocking him back into the stream.

Another flashing slash of claws and a flurry of confused movement was all that was visible of the two as they fought surrounded by huge sheets of kicked up water. The roaring seemed to get louder and the water was as much as in the air as in the watercourse.

"Errm, I really wish he wouldn't bait Inuyasha about Kagome just now." Miroku muttered.

Sango looked at him in silent surmise.

The combatants separated momentarily, each in a similar pose of fury. Inuyasha was very still and hunched over, his face shadowed. Kouga saw the waiting group out of the corner of his eye and leaped towards them with his unnatural speed. He caught a surprised Kagome's hand "She's coming with me!" He called triumphantly and pulled her towards him.

"FORGET IT!" Boomed a terrible voice. Kouga looked back at Inuyasha to find a fully transformed hanyou all too close. A slashing blow cuffed him helplessly away from Kagome and then he was grabbed; upper arms crushed mercilessly in the cruel grip of the demon. Inuyasha lifted him above his head and threw him to be all but impaled on the trees some forty feet away.

Kouga slid tonelessly down to land hard at the foot of a live oak. Inuyasha watched him fall. Growling continuously, he started to approach stiff legged, sniffing to catch hints of how close to death his foe was. Another far more enticing scent was very close to him, pulling his attention away from the task at hand as nothing else could.

Kagome bit her lips; she had to get this under control somehow. Inuyasha in this state was a danger to friend and foe alike. That was the true purpose of the sword, to control Inuyasha's youkai blood and prevent these ghastly transformations. Something had to be done.

He paused, eyes gleaming red, with the livid stripes plain to see, hands clenched loosely into clawed fists. Kagome took her chance and ran straight up to him, the Tetsusaiga clenched in both her hands. Inuyasha reacted with a deep snarl and a hand shot out hooking at the back of Kagome's neck and pulling her against his chest. Before she could gather enough wind even to make a sound his other arm was around her imprisoning her against his body as he leaped off.

Miroku and Sango started forward in horror. Inuyasha was gone, in full youkai form with Kagome in his grasp.

. Kouga stirred weakly and looked up to see Miroku and Sango standing with their backs to him talking excitedly. A footfall sounded next to his head and he felt the brush of silk upon his arm. Kagura was bent above him.

"It's time, you poor wreck. You've had the use of these long enough." Her hand flicked out bearing a bone-bladed knife, a few moments, and it was done. Both shards were gone. Pain and loss rolled over Kouga and he blacked out.

Sango looked back at a sound and saw Kagura rising from Kouga's side. She had a knife and both of her hands were bloody. Sango's gasp brought Miroku's shocked attention.

Kagura smiled and shrugged, "He's not dead you know; Inuyasha must have become distracted before he finished the job. I'd say he's definitely out of the competition for that little miko though." With a laugh she plucked a feather from her hair and leaped upon it's expanded form.

"Damn you!" Sango shook herself from her torpor. "Hiraikotsu!" The boomerang followed the feather in its flight but Kagura was ready for it. She flicked it aside using her fan. Sango ran to retrieve it on its return spin and immediately threw again but Kagura was well out of range. A tinkling laugh floated back on the breeze.

"Where do you think Inuyasha has taken Kagome?" Sango asked, spinning to confront Miroku.

"I don't know." He replied, "But I think Kouga might just bleed to death if we don't do something about it pretty quickly."

Miroku and Sango had considerable difficulty moving Kouga's inert body. The villagers weren't about to approach this unknown combatant and his injuries were severe.

Kaede did what she could at the scene splinting both arms, which were broken just below the shoulder joints, and padding and bandaging all the assorted gouges and wounds. Not least the bone-deep gashes in both legs. These were the most troublesome, requiring both Miroku and Sango to put pressure to each thigh for considerable periods.

Shippou made an absolute pest of himself. Repeatedly breaking away from the group to study the trees and sniff the air he kept demanding where Inuyasha and Kagome had gone.

"Enough Shippou!" Kaede finally snapped. "Inuyasha is incapable of harming Kagome."

Shippou swiped angry tears away. "Yes, but when he's a brainless youkai does he know that?"

Kaede grunted absently as she tied off some catgut. "Just as well as when he is a brainless hanyou. Now hold Kouga steady. I must stitch this."

Throughout Kouga remained limp and unresponsive. 'But,' Sango thought, 'not unconscious.'

"Perhaps it's better if we discuss this after we get him moved." she said.

:::00:::

Kagome was so crushed against Inuyasha's chest that she could barely breathe. Never had she been carried so high or so fast. He suddenly dropped to land with only a slight jar.

Almost fainting Kagome was supported only by his arm as he loosened his grip just enough to swipe a clawed hand between them knocking the Tetsusaiga out of her grasp. A swift kick sent the old katana several feet away.

'Might as well be on the moon.' Kagome thought, gulping fearfully and raising her eyes to the demonic face so close above hers. He was continuing to growl on a low note and was casting his red glowing eyes about for any sign of intruders.

Kagome licked her lips attempting to ready herself to speak. She had to get his attention; he had to hear her.

"I-Inu-yasha." The growl intensified and scarlet eyes flashed back to her face. She gulped and tried again her voice shaking uncontrollably. "Inu-" She gasped as the growl changed to a snarl. She could feel his claws flexing into her back causing her to arch involuntarily against him. "Osw-"

The word was lost, caught between them as his mouth clamped firmly down on hers.

'Kagome' the name drifted across his overheated mind. 'Kagome is mine.' He ran his hands down her slender back his senses swimming in her intoxicating scent, the feel of her pliant young body under his hands. He gentled the kiss, allowing her a breath before shifting his grip to cradle her head. With his fingers sliding into her hair he plundered her sweet mouth.

The wind swirled the leaves around them, twining their hair, silvery-white against raven black. If there had been any observers the couple would have seemed transfixed in a moving cathedral of light and shadow as the sunlight flickered with the branches dancing in the wind.

Kagome was swept away by the deluge of sensations. He tasted of forest pools and the heat of the summer sun and some wild tang that told her it was he, her Inuyasha that was kissing her. Her whole body was tingling from the vibration of what seemed to be-—her eyes flashed open gazing up at the autumn trees above her head as Inuyasha nuzzled her neck. 'He's purring!' She managed to think before he caught her earlobe in his mouth.

He smiled into her hair as he felt her melt against him in such complete surrender. He clasped her to him as they stumbled and he brought them down into a seated position

Kagome sucked in a breath and gazed into his face. His golden eyes were smoky with desire but clear of any flicker of scarlet. His face was as even and perfect in feature as that of some sullen angel.

"Kagome," he drew a claw down the side of her cheek, then caught her chin between thumb and forefinger. "Kagome, when are you going to come to me? When are you going to stay?" His expression held more than a little of the poignant longing with which he had waited for her every time she went away. Kagome had never seen such a look from him and could no more resist it than she could refuse to let her heart beat

She drew her fingers up his side. The skin was an even, golden ivory. Healed now of all injuries by the youkai blood of his transformations. He shivered and gathered her closer.

"I'm right here." She turned her face and kissed his palm. "I'm not going anywhere."

The hanyou felt a surge of elation and caught her to him as they collapsed together in a tangle of limbs, Kagome responding ardently to his every move.

:::000:::

"YOU TOLD HIM WHAT?!!" Sango wanted to know at the top of her lungs approximately one minute into their discussion. They had left Kouga sleeping under Shippou's watchful eye and walked up the stairs to the shrine precinct.

"Sango-sama," Miroku replied, "all I indicated was that he should stop struggling and follow his heart solely in such matters. Indeed, that his entire problem stemmed from an oppositional tendency hidden in his character. You may have noticed it as a tendency to be an 'overbearing pig' if I remember the phrase correctly. In fact, if you take all of Inuyasha's comments upon their first meeting and assumed the reverse to be the true meaning, then all of his subsequent actions make sense. Given his ghost problems of course."

Kaede sighed and made him sit down. "That may be perfectly true about Inuyasha but this is a very young couple. Early commitment may be very good for him since he operates in all ways better when Kagome-sama is here. But what of her? She stands to lose a great deal by this."

Sango blinked. "That's nothing like I ever heard."

"How do you mean?"

"Well," Sango said, "no matter what we may think of his behavior at times, the fact remains that Inuyasha is a member of one of the greatest youkai houses. And, if my information is correct, his family connections to the Ono clan are nothing to be sneezed at either. Nobility on both sides. Almost to the point of royalty." She shrugged, "As his wife, Kagome certainly won't starve but I cannot believe that you take Inuyasha kidnapping Kagome in full youkai form so calmly. What if he kills her?"

"We would have heard by now." Kaede looked into the forest. "See how calm it is out there. Not a ravening youkai lord to be heard."

Miroku raised his eyebrows and laughed softly, "Precisely."

:::00:::00:::

Inuyasha rested with his head pillowed on Kagome's breast tracing the blue veins inside of one of her wrists. "Keisai-" he began casually.

"Keisai... Does this make me your wife, Inuyasha?"

"Hai, very much so." He lifted his head to peer up at her through his hair then rolled over to settle himself comfortably on her torso.

"Too late for regrets little girl. You're my mate now and any demon we meet is going to know it. On both sides of the well." He emphasized his point with a couple of pokes from a clawed fingertip.

"Oww."

"Gomen, anyway don't we have some unfinished business to settle? I seem to recall I was beating the life out of Kouga when you showed up."

"Oh! What they must be thinking!"

His smug grin was alarming. "I'll tell them what we've been doing to avoid any confusion."

"You can't do that!" she squeaked.

He sat up. "I don't see why not." He glanced at her expression and amended things a bit, "It's not like I'd go into any real detail," he said, studying her face for her reactions. "Just enough to make sure that jerk Kouga never has the wrong idea again." By the time he was finished he was down to a mumble and they were both blushing. Kagome leaned forward and kissed Inuyasha gently on the lips.

"Inuyasha, trust me, he won't get the wrong idea ever again." They sat, gazing into each other's eyes for a space out of time, their smiles changing subtly as desire stirred again. A particularly chill gust of evening wind brought them back to themselves with a shiver. Time was passing and they could not make it stop.

They began casting about rather self-consciously for their scattered clothes and eventually collected them all except for one of Kagome's shoes. This was nowhere to be found and as a result Kagome rode to the streamside on Inuyasha's back.

He set her down carefully and walked over to collect his suikan and kosode from where he had dropped them several hours ago. Kagome walked over to the shattered tree where Kouga had landed and exclaimed in consternation.

"Inuyasha, are you sure you didn't kill him?"

Inuyasha turned and looked at her as he finished dressing in his rather tattered clothes. "I doubt it; I gave him a good few gashes, beat him up and broke both his arms. Just like I said I would." He finished in some satisfaction.

"There just seems to be an awful lot of blood here."

He followed her over to look. "Keh didn't to that. That was inflicted after that wimp landed here. Damn, stinks like Kagura." He paced around a bit, picking something up from the ground, and wound up behind a nearby tree. "She must have been standing here watching us fight."

He stared around for a few moments frowning. "Kagome," he announced finally, "something tells me we're in for it." He handed her the missing shoe and they headed off for Kaede's house at a jog.


	5. Bloody Yesterdays

BLOODY YESTERDAYS

Kaede and Shippou met them outside of the hut; Kaede with a smile and Shippou with a shill shriek that cut off as he landed in Kagome's arms. His eyes grew very round and he sniffed audibly.

"Ooh, what have you two been up to? What will Sesshoumaru say when he hears?"

"Oi, enough of that brat." Inuyasha had him upside down by his tail in an instant.

"Well he's gonna find out," Shippou snarled, flailing his arms about irritably.

Inuyasha raised the little kitsune to eye level and said slowly and clearly, "I will tell him myself." Still holding the outraged kitsune, Inuyasha addressed Kaede. "Did that evil wench take Kouga's shards?"

"Yes, Inuyasha, I think she's handed them over this time too." Kaede sighed. "Sango is aware and is concerned for the safety of her brother; it won't be long now."

Kagome stepped forward, taking Shippou gently from Inuyasha's grasp. "Maybe I'd better go speak to her."

"She's at the shrine." Kaede answered. Kagome nodded and began to set off but was called back by Inuyasha.

"Take your bow." he said.

Kagome found Sango sitting alone at the head of the shine steps, her head resting on her folded arms. Kagome sat next to her, a little gingerly.

"Everything alright between you and Inuyasha?" Sango slid an eye over towards her but didn't otherwise move.

"I think so." Kagome copied Sango's posture. "At least things are very clear between us so we can go on. To wherever it is we have to go to."

"They took Kouga's shards."

"I know, that means that your brother Kohaku is next. If they haven't already gotten him yet. Sango, what happens is what happens. At least this means we're at the end of this part of the story."

"You can really believe there's a story beyond this?"

"Well, I don't think I would have been alive with the Shikon-no-Tama in my side five-hundred years from now if there were no more story."

Sango had to digest this for a few minutes. "What part of the story am I in? The tragic side character like in the plays?"

Kagome sighed. "I was actually thinking about this subject this morning: There is a country in my time that has almost all of its stories end happily. I know it sounds crazy, but it's a very rich very successful country. Why not copy it's attitude and plan on winning?"

They both laughed at that and descended the stairs to do what needed to be done.

Most of the evening was spent by the group setting up a large circle about the town to form a ward that Kaede could activate in a moment and hold by herself for a considerable time.

Kouga could hear, as he drifted in and out of consciousness, the shrill cries of "Kisune-bi" as the little fox demon affixed spells were carried to him on the breeze. Kaede and Miroku seemed to be writing ofuda as fast as they could go and the others came and went, stopping only briefly for a few words.

Once a presence stopped by his pallet and left a bowl of clear broth by his elbow. It was Inuyasha, swift and silent as ever, as graceful in his movements as a cat. The hanyou paused for a moment and regarded him expressionlessly and rose and left without speaking. He didn't need to; the meaning was clear in the commingled scents of Kagome and her chosen mate filling the air. Kouga turned his face to the wall until he was alone again but he did drink the broth when Kaede came to feed it to him.

:::0:::

Out beyond the farthest edge of the fields a darkness built up over the land. It seemed to swell and grow until it was proven to be only a shadow in the moonlight caused by the enormous black cloud that was descending from the heavens. Sesshoumaru regarded it with interest.

He stood upon a slight rise near to the western edge of the village. Jaken crouched in a shivering huddle behind him waiting for the next order. But Sesshoumaru delayed for quite awhile, studying the heavens. Finally, he dropped his head and strode forward a few dozen paces and used his katana to pull aside some grass. There was a small wooden stake with an ofuda tacked on it as if it were a label for a vegetable row.

He raised his eyebrows at this and flicked his hand as if throwing some sand at the small marker. A fizzle of blue fire appeared momentarily, followed by the appearance of a faint blue glow that seemed to be an inverted bowl over the sleeping village.

Sesshoumaru studied this a moment before snapping the fingers of his remaining hand and ending the glow. "We will walk around this, Jaken."

"But, Sesshoumaru-sama, you can easily pass straight through!" The toad-youkai exclaimed.

"Nevertheless, we shall continue around. Obliterating this may cause me annoyance later. So, you see, I, Sesshoumaru, am progressing in greatness, Jaken."

"Of course, Sesshoumaru-sama. Of course." Jaken shook his head worriedly and led the great beast Ah-Un, with its burden in his lord's footsteps.

:::00:::

Far on the other side of the village, where the black cloud seemed to billow and swirl, Kagura waited babe-in-arms. She squinted her eyes against the dust that was kicked up by the descending cyclone of darkness. 'Naraku hasn't gotten any classier,' she thought, as the dust cloud cleared to reveal three figures in its midst.

Naraku was yet again wrapped in a baboon's skin with it's mask concealing his face. 'No matter,' thought Kagura, 'there truly is no concealing his evil, and this is the true Naraku and no puppet.' His hands rested upon the shoulders of a young boy in a taijiya battle outfit. The mask that covered the boy's face was old and showed much wear. Kanna stood by their side.

Kagura saw that the boy Kohaku showed no more consciousness of where he was than an ox, brought out to slaughter. And indeed, like the ox, he bent his head willingly to win, even in death, the commendation of his master. Her heart pounded. She wanted to live! Not be subsumed in some twisted story of her creator's making; not to be a victim to his tiresome plots.

"Oi." There was a faint voice over the hill. Miroku and Sango, mounted on Kirara seemed to rise independently of sense on blue flame, their dark clothes billowing. "Leave the boy alone, we know why you are here. Leave the boy alone and we might be able to talk."

Naraku chuckled, "Now why would I parley with you? You just want the boy's life, when I want so much more." A wind seemed to stir his robes around.

Kohaku stepped forward. His appearance was not reassuring, as his armor now had a tattered appearance it had not had before and his hair was no longer neatly tied up. Naraku spoke, sweeping back his baboon hood to reveal his all too perfect features.

"You see the boy before you. In almost all respects the same brat that fate dumped on my hands well over a year ago. This offal is good for only one thing. And, you two insignificant people know what that is. Where are your betters?"

"Whom could that mean?" Miroku shouted furiously. "You debase yourself with every change. You make a point of flouting every rule. Anyone is better than you!"

Naraku only shrugged in reply and wrapped his white baboon skin around him more firmly still. "They are not here. I shall seek them elsewhere." He dipped his head and a cloud of purplish miasma obscured him.

There was again an explosion of choking dust as a dark whirlwind spun itself about Naraku and obscured him, lifting off and arching out of sight towards the east. Kagura coughed furiously. This was not what she wanted. She resentfully raised her hand to call and they came; all of the small demons of the air that had been gathering for weeks; the wormlike roiling mass of minor youkai that would wait at a greater demon's call just to get a bit of the kill.

"Go! Curse you!" She shut her fan for a moment and turned away to confront those who stood behind her. "Kohaku, get in front of me! Kanna, why are you still here?" She stared at the small pale girl who transmitted so many of Naraku's wishes.

Kanna stepped forward. "I watch you." She said in her childish voice. "I wait for you to make an unforgivable error. All truly fine tools are inherently dangerous to their owners, as any fine craftsman knows. So, you, like a fine tool wish to turn in the craftsman's hand and slice him. It is pathetic."

Kagura stared at her for a moment and then spun around to observe events.

Sango and Miroku regarded the flight of small youkai without serious alarm. These had faced by the group so often to be almost routine. The problem was to get past them and capture Kohaku. Miroku indicated with a swing of his staff where he wished to be let off and Sango did so to come in low and fast towards the little group awaiting on the ground. She could feel the slight shift in Kirara's flight that indicated a passenger had dismounted. Good, now to concentrate.

While still some distance off, Sango took the move that she hoped would buy her some needed time. She let loose her bone boomerang in a shortened arc that brought the flat of the blade against Kohaku's back and propelled him sharply forward, knocking his claw out of his hand.

Kohaku, lacking any direct orders to attack, did not react as rapidly as he might have to the boomerang's progress and flew forward to land on his hands and knees. Well away from the globe of barrier that appeared about the group behind him. Kagura turned to deposit the baby and his skin into Kanna's arms. "Here, looks like Sango intends to fight for her brother." Kanna did not reply but took the baby and looked at it.

It seemed to be sleeping again. "Let her, he's beaten her before." The baby barely slitted his eyes and looked to Kohaku, transmitting some message to him where he knelt bent forwards on the ground some feet away. Kohaku rose to his feet and strode forward to meet his sister's approach.

Miroku rolled forwards twice as he stuck the ground and came up on his feet, staff whirring in a figure-eight pattern that cleared the area immediately around him. As expected, the swarm of demons was ignoring him to follow Sango's rapid flight for the most part. They were visible even in faint light of early dawn like so many paper lanterns of wild shapes. He took a few more swings, destroying low-level youkai right and left before undoing the binding on his air rip. "Kazaana!"

Wind began to rush past him as he advanced, hand upraised onto the field. He kept a careful eye out for Naraku's insects but spotted none as he moved forward, counting to himself how long he kept the vortex in his hand open. The youkai came and circled him, still attracted by the call of Kohaku's shikon shard but distracted by the challenge of this opponent. Miroku swiftly sealed up his air rip and produced the first of the little surprises set for this morning from his voluminous sleeve. Again shooting his arm up to its full extent he chanted the spell that affected the contents of a large aerosol can of hornet spray and discharged it at the circling youkai.

The results were spectacular. The combined spay and powerful dispersal spell latched to each demon it contacted causing them to burst into a sparking ball of fairy fire. The dispersing demons howled and whirled about, igniting their companions before exploding into balls of fiery motes that drifted in the dawn wind. The houshi's figure was outlined in flashes of red, green and blue light.

Miroku tossed the empty can aside with a hard grin. Kagome had brought a sack of them when the well had been infested with hornets only to find that Inuyasha had cleared the well of nests while she was gone. Naraku's saimyoushou were in for a hard time if they showed up.

A large claw swept past his nose causing him to stumble back a moment. One, at least had been missed. He turned to find himself confronted by a mantis-type youkai. Not one he was willing to risk the air-rip on. With a shout he readied his staff. As he swung at the thing it lunged, cutting a shallow stripe along his hairline. A sheet of his own blood instantly blinded Miroku. "Shit!" The rest of the fight was short and unpleasant, resulting in the impalement of the youkai on the end of his staff.

"Kirara, guard!" Sango directed as slipped off to confront her brother. Kohaku was approaching at a steady pace, his eyes holding that blank expression of control. Sango watched him carefully, easing Hiraikotsu in her hands. The group within the force barrier did not concern her too much at the moment as they could not attack from within and Kirara posed a sufficient threat from without to force them to deal with the fire cat first. It should give her enough time. No matter her feelings on the subject she had been training for weeks to act as opponent to her brother's claw fighting style.

Kohaku stood his ground a few feet in front of Sango. She waited tensely until the boy made the first move. He leapt up, surprising Sango a little and threw the claw down at her. Immediately she blocked with the Hiraikotsu, and as he came towards her used the giant boomerang to propel him off to one side.

Sango realigned her position. He leapt back to his feet, deftly running to another angle to try it again, this time sending the chain out to catch around one of her ankles before running with the claw raised as Sango fell, missing the boomerang as it slammed into the ground just beyond her head.

She whipped her katana out and parried his attack. "Ko-haku..." she ground out through her teeth-though it made no difference. Still silent he moved quickly and shifted bringing the point of the claw into the back of her head, hard. The taijiya gritted her teeth and shoved her feet in his stomach, flipping him up and over her as she scrambled up and grabbed the boomerang and sent it flying towards Kohaku. He dropped and rolled underneath it.

Sango caught Hiraikotsu, balancing it easily on her shoulders, planning to repeat the throw that had brought Kohaku disarmed to his knees in the first place. The pyrotechnics going on behind her certainly seemed to mean that Miroku had successfully dealt with his end of the business. She looked to see Kohaku straighten himself and bring his claw into his own shoulder at the same moment that the force barrier in the background released.

"Kohaku!" Sango yelled with a sickening sense of deja vu. She saw him fall, blood blossoming like some obscene scarlet flower from his back. 'That's a lung,' a small cold voice in the back of her mind told her. It sounded to her like Kagome's.

Kanna stepped forward, holding her mirror out before Kirara's face. The fire cat froze and stood unmoving as the small group left the force barrier together. Kagura shouldered the baby and felt one handed at the fallen Kohaku's back, picking out the bloody shard. As she did so, Sango felt a cold grip on her mind freezing her in place. She was held only for a moment and was released to stagger as the three escaped upon a feather, leaving Kohaku's body crumpled on the ground.

Sango sobbed in frustration and swung around, gathering momentum to heave Hiraikotsu off of her shoulders and into its arc. "Hiraikotsu!" she cried and let go, seeing the giant boomerang swirl off before she ducked and rolled to get closer to the body of her dying brother.

Miroku used his staff to deflect the boomerang just in time. It had not struck its target and would have taken him out on its return trip had he not been watching it. The boomerang spun over on itself on the ground and he grabbed the carrying strap dragging the unwieldy thing back to Sango and Kohaku.

"Sango-" he paused in astonishment as he saw the look of horror on her face and remembered what a mess of mud and blood his face must be. "Just a scalp wound," he reassured her "Let's get him sitting up so he can breathe."

"Oh, gods, why can't I just kill him and be done with this?" Sango gasped out. Her face was gray and Miroku suddenly realized that he had two patients on his hands, or maybe only one. Kohaku's eyes had dulled in the few moments that had passed. A warm flood was sluicing over his hand where he supported the boys back. Kohaku was leaning bonelessly against Miroku's shoulder and neck.

:::000:::

Sesshoumaru paused for a moment at the edge of the field. Rin had broken away from him on a tangent that took her to a small group huddled in the bottom of a dip of land. She stood still at the edge of the dip long enough for him to become curious and incline his steps in her direction. She looked back at him and uncharacteristically waited for him to approach her.

"Sesshoumaru-sama, Rin wishes..." She gestured behind her. He gazed at the mess behind her for a moment and returned his regard to her without change of expression.

"The boy also?" He inquired.

"Most especially," Rin twisted her fingers in her kosode.

Sesshoumaru nodded and drew Tenseiga bringing it around to make a long slash close to the ground. There was a tortured gasp and a rattle of prayer beads so Sesshoumaru added another slash bisecting the first, visible as great planes of light radiating out from the sword. He brought it up in a half-salute and resheathed it. He immediately turned his back and resumed his journey.

Rin stayed behind just long enough to be sure that the job had been a thorough one and then danced away to follow her own god: Sesshoumaru.


	6. Almost Blinded

ALMOST BLINDED

Something was very odd. Inuyasha and Kagome had started a walking patrol shortly after seeing the others off. There was an eerie sensation of hidden action that was trebled by shear anticipation. The clearing around the Bone-Eaters well was silent. The first rays of the newly—risen sun scattered across it where they found a path through the trees. There was none of the usual buzz of insects or swoop of birds. But the sunlight glistened on what could have been the trail of some gigantic slug up the side of the well and over. The stench was incredible.

Kagome swallowed bile and looked at Inuyasha anxiously as he gazed at the obscene trail of slime. "Inuyasha, they are in there aren't they?"

"They can't have gone through. They are not you or me."

"Well they're somebody and there just isn't that much to do at the bottom of that well." Kagome retorted.

Inuyasha satisfied himself with a brief huff of air and intense look that sent Kagome onto a blushing pile of confusion before retreating to the obvious: "We must be wrong. There must be a way through that we don't know about."

"Mama, Souta!" Kagome exclaimed, "What if those monsters did get through?"

"Gods, Kagome! The shit you think of!" Inuyasha folded his arms into his sleeves and shook his head. He looked up to see she had left his side and was in the act of jumping into the well. "Oi, KAGOME!!" He rushed to the side of the well only to be brought up short by an arm about his throat.

"Where could you be going, little brother?" Sesshoumaru breathed into Inuyasha's tufted ear. He squeezed his bicep powerfully enough to choke the hanyou.

"Let go of me you jerk! I need Kagome." Inuyasha gurgled, pawing with not much effect at his brother's arm.

"Hmmn, don't we all?" Sesshoumaru released his grip on his brother's throat only to grab his jaw and lift him free of the ground "This time I'm coming with you."

"Fine!" Inuyasha grasped Sesshoumaru's wrist with both hands and Sesshoumaru relaxed his hold to be drawn by his brother's falling body into the Bone Eater's Well.

They tumbled in an undignified heap on the floor of the well in current time. Inuyasha was up first, leaping upwards with a scrabble of claws to the ancient wooden ledge of the well. "So, where have you taken us, Little Brother?" Sesshoumaru inquired politely.

"Kagome's time, as if it were any of your damn business." Inuyasha snarled and flung the shrine doors open to a world that never existed in Sesshoumaru's wildest dreams.

He saw a broad plaza apparently topping a mount. Lit by not only the light of early dawn but by the reflected orangey-pink glow shining from the upper levels of an exceedingly tall building, even taller than the mount was. He moved forward and a rumbling noise accompanied by a warm, cooked smell struck him. It seemed to be some great city, a non-stop beehive of activity. His attention was caught by the twinkling lights of a vehicle-arching overhead accompanied by the insistent beat of some kind of rapid swan's wings. He gazed up at it and discerned that it was held aloft by the dizzying spin of two thin blades that should have been too weak to hold it in air. An artificially strong breeze stirred his hair.

Suddenly Inuyasha was upon him, jostling him aside as he broke past him back into the well house. "Kagome's not here!" Inuyasha was already leaping toward the well opening when Sesshoumaru caught him.

"Where and when is this place?" He strained to hold Inuyasha up by the front of his suikan as the hanyou swung at him.

"My mate is in trouble and you want to chat all sudden like? Answers when you've helped me!"

"Ohh, mated are you?" Sesshoumaru smirked, "I always knew you'd take her." That got him another clout at the head. "Alright, I'll help you. But you must answer my questions later." He threw Inuyasha down, hard, "Don't try that again you dirty pup. Take me out of here, slowly this time."

For once in his life, Inuyasha did not continue the argument.

The trip through the well seemed to extend itself. Rings of frosty blue light advanced towards them, surrounded them and receded behind them with a ghostly whistle. This was wrong. The chill was wrong; the lights shouldn't have been there, sound had never been part of the brief journey before. The fact she had a companion seemed wrong.

Everything seemed to slow, and a landscape of chill blue mist surrounded the two travelers. There was someone holding Kagome's wrist. Kagome found herself facing a distorted vision of Kikyou. She smelt of death and the smooth skin was broken in many places to show the under construction of mud, bones and sticks. Her stance was canted off to one side and the mouth split as she spoke.

"Do you know why I have power over you?" Kikyou mouthed. Only a cracked whisper came forth.

"Let go of me." Kagome wrenched at the hold on her wrist with far greater strength than she had ever had before, breaking the clutch of dry, brittle fingers.

Kikyou hissed like a snake. "You are now the same age as I was when my life was torn from me. I resent that—and you are in the way."

A glint at Kikyou's throat caught Kagome's attention. "You bitch! You've had a shikon shard all along!"

Kikyou stepped back a few feet and suddenly produced a bow from nowhere. With a smile she drew the old bow with a great sound of creaking wood. There was an even hum of over stretched bowstring as Kikyou's revenant aimed at her reincarnation.

Kagome thought fast. 'She has no right to my life; whatever was good in her is long wiped out. But she thinks I can't learn anything.'

Kagome suddenly dove for Kikyou's ankles while allowing a barrier of her own self-assurance to surround her. The arrow pinged off of the floor and rattled away into the shadows as she contacted in a painful slide into Kikyou's knees. Kikyou went over into a bony, struggling heap.

"You disgusting piece of trash!" Kikyou's voice hissed as the bow was smashed repeatedly against Kagome's bent back.

There was a percussively explosive sound at the wall through which Kagome had entered. The wall crumbled into dust and Inuyasha was revealed holding the red Tetsusaiga with Sesshoumaru behind him. "Kagome-e!" Inuyasha leaped into the chamber.

Kikyou raised an outspread hand, it glowed an instant and the world disappeared from sight for Inuyasha. There was a blinding flash of light and his vision cleared slowly. Kikyou's face seemed to all he could see. Her eyes held a wild white glint. Her voice was as cold as ice but intense; "You see, I told you, I will allow no one else to have your life. You are joining me in hell."

Inuyasha found within himself a hard core of resistance.

"What of Kagome?"

"What of her? Her misbegotten existence has no place between us. And she knows it. It is possibly ending even as we speak."

"So it's true—what the baby said." The darkness around them shivered. "My involvement with a dead woman has weakened the living one. Weakened her! And my only promise with you is death!"

"Yes! You know that!" Her face burned whitely there in his vision.

"Then it's my fault if she dies. No Kikyou. I cannot leave Kagome alone—not as long as she's alive. I'll never leave her. I heard what you've told her. How she is just a pale copy. But you are wrong. It is you who can only fill up one small corner of Kagome's soul."

Kikyou's face swam away from him as the darkness split with a sudden resumption of sound and pain. Sesshoumaru had struck him on the jaw. Inuyasha worked on retaining his feet as Sesshoumaru strode swiftly across the room to confront Kikyou, who was rising, leaving a still Kagome behind her.

"You do seem to have left the whole miko idea behind in the dust in your idiotic search for vengeance." He spun, swinging the Tenseiga at the ex-miko almost as some kind of experiment.

His amber eyes narrowed as Kikyou only just escaped the tip of the blade by leaping back with a hiss. She glared at him and quickly took the moment to produce a bow, notching an arrow swiftly and drawing it to aim at him. "I cannot loose yet!"

"You cannot win either. You are trying to kill my brother, kill my sister-in-law, and destroy every chance that we ever had for peace. Beyond it all, you are starting to annoy me."

The miko snarled silently. "You have no place in this battle, why should you care what happens to this girl-or Inuyasha? Inuyasha is my business and this fake is in my way-though no longer now since she appears to be dead." She held her aim steady.

He sighed and almost turned away. "Look," he said, " you bore me." He suddenly let loose with his mind whip. A golden flash released across the room they were in and licked her around the arm.

She gritted her teeth to suppress a cry-and her eyes widened as a few pieces of her arm crumbled to the floor. "Chikushou!" She hissed lifting her burning eyes to Sesshoumaru. "I am not—going to loose here-not like this!" She lifted her arms and let the arrow fly.

Sesshoumaru deftly dropped and surged up in front of her again, far too close, his eyes glowing a vivid crimson. "You have overstepped your boundary, Dead Miko..." Within the blink of an eye he drew the Tenseiga and brought it down upon her for the second and final time, giving her no chance for escape.

Kikyou gave a whistling shriek like a teakettle and the artificial body completed the task that it should have finished so long ago; it disintegrated.

A golden ball of light appeared to emerge from the revenant's mouth like a breath, but hovered in the air. Inuyasha gasped; his attention brought to Kagome.

She lay so very still, the great bow broken over her body. He was at her side in an instant, afraid to touch. "Kagome," he breathed, leaning over her. Golden spots seemed to be coalescing in front of his vision. They were rising up in front of him, six, or seven of them, some brighter than others. Inuyasha pulled her into his arms. Was she breathing?

Inuyasha was torn by the wonder of the vision and the need to be sure Kagome was all right. He looked up with a gasp as another golden light joined the others and was gone with the others to infuse the girl in his arms with a glow as incandescent as a bonfire. The glow faded, and she stirred in his arms.

Sesshoumaru sheathed his Tenseiga, as there was a tiny, ringing clatter on the floor. He bent down and picked it up, looking at it with bemused interest.

Kagome's head nudged against Inuyasha's chest; giving him the greatest thrill he had ever felt. Not winning a fight, not physical affection, but rather a chance to continue in a life deeply wanted. All things were possible if he could only have time. No matter how little. "Can you get up?" he asked. "We have to finish this."

They readied themselves quickly and gathered to stride back to where a black spot showed on the wall. They found themselves stumbling in the base of the old well in the feudal era. It was unexpectedly very dark.

Sesshoumaru hissed with frustration. With an impatient flash of his hand they were violently expelled upwards. Inuyasha held Kagome close, shielding her from the worst of the shock as he landed in the clearing of the well.

Naraku awaited them. His appearance shocked even Sesshoumaru. The tousled hair beauty was gone from him, changed beyond all possible recognition. Human he had never truly looked. And each transformation had twisted him until now the designation "he" was seriously up for grabs.

Inuyasha firmed up his stance and readied his sword.

"Do you think you can do it alone hanyou?" A chill voice spoke beside him. Inuyasha turned with a snap. Sesshoumaru was there, just yards away.

A wind appeared out of nowhere, flattening grass and stripping leaves and small twigs from the trees as it passed. A rumbling sound followed making both brothers turn their attention to where Naraku had been forming.

"Well, well, this is a morning of gifts. Here I see both ingredients I need for the perfect youkai body and the final shard to the shikon-no-tama. This family togetherness on your part is touching."

Inuyasha growled as Naraku chuckled and one abominable part made the first strike, causing the brothers to leap to either side. But Naraku with his many pieces, parts, limbs, just smiled wickedly and sent out twenty more, each one harder to dodge than the last. Sesshoumaru growled. "What an inconvenience." A large praying mantis claw came towards him at tremendous speed, but without a thought the elder dog youkai whipped out the Tenseiga and took a wild swipe. Naraku's limbs fizzled and began to fall from him and gain shape of what they originally were on the ground. Naraku hissed and frowned.

"Sesshoumaru! What the hell are you doing?!" Inuyasha called, back flipping from another deadly appendage, taking a great swipe with the Tetsusaiga; "Kaze no Kizu!" He cried causing the flopping limbs that were becoming youkai to vanish.

"I think it should be obvious Little Brother." He answered making another swing at an oncoming limb giving no more explanation then that.

"Whatever it is it will not succeed, I have the complete Shikon no Tama, there is no way you can win." Naraku snarled contemptuously.

Kagome stood poised the side of the Bone-Eater's Well. The bow that she had picked up from Kikyou's dusty remains held loosely in her grasp. "Naraku!" She called, "Did you forget? We have an appointment and I am here to keep it!"

Naraku turned his head suddenly, all attention upon her and his eyes opened wide. 'This girl's power, it's greater than it was. What does this mean?'

Kagome drew the bow to its greatest extent and whispered "This time I know you will hit. There is no stopping you." She let lose the arrow and it flew fast and straight into the roiling mass that was Naraku, gathering a white-hot glow as it flew. It struck with a purifying sheet of holy fire that exploded upwards into the air and stayed for several moments, forcing all observers to shield their eyes. This time there were no scattered pieces to fall to earth. Only a nearly perfect crystal sphere which bounced on the ground by Sesshoumaru's booted feet.

A sparkling mote fell from the front of his kosode as he bent and joined the sphere with an odd, ringing, click. He picked it up. "So this is what it's been all about? This shikon-no-tama?" He regarded it in considerable puzzlement while Inuyasha walked across the ground towards him. "I am the unquestioned Lord of the Western Lands. Correct? Little Brother?"

Inuyasha looked at his brother with a massive frown. "You are." He said. "Why question a fact?" The Tetsusaiga was sheathed but his hand was on its hilt. "What are you doing with that?"

"Well, Inuyasha, I, Sesshoumaru, find I have a request to make of you." Sesshoumaru said, lightly tossing the little ball to his brother. "Do something about yourself that doesn't involve challenging me. You will find me supportive and grateful." He turned his eyes briefly to where Kagome stood by the well, listening. Then, turning away he whistled and Ah-Un appeared over the tree line with two passengers on its back. "Farewell, we have a discussion to make in the near future. I will see you."

Then Sesshoumaru was gone. At least for the moment. Kagome watched him fly of wondering what he was up to. She turned her attention back to Inuyasha.

As she did a sudden rich chuckle filled the glade. Inuyasha held the purified shikon-no-tama up in his fingers for an instant, catching the suns rays and scattering multi-colored sparkles on the green grass. A twist of his fingers and it was gone.

He turned and said "Kagome, come here." And stood waiting as she crossed the churned-up earth to him. "Do you think we could be together you and I?" He held her lightly by the elbows.

"I wish that we could -but how?" Her voice cracked miserably on the last word.

He smiled brilliantly and dipped his head catching her lips in a swift hard kiss.

"Just say yes, Baka."

"Y-yes."

He drew her closer and kissed her again, making her dizzy with a sudden rush of sensation that seemed crazily out of joint with their current situation. Here, with all that had happened.

As he stepped back she gasped. For it was an Inuyasha with black hair and a merry smile that greeted her eyes.

He pulled her then into a drugging embrace; making her senses swim as he ran his hands down her back, drawing her firmly to him. This time silver hair glinted in the sunlight and golden glowing eyes gazed down at her when he lifted his head.

"I have decided to give nothing up. Not you, nor any part of myself. I have taken control. I will be human when it is right to be human and youkai when I damned well feel like it."

"An excellent choice Inuyasha-sama. You fulfill the expectations of your departed sire. Indeed I may say..." Flick! A pair of claws twisted him off of his hiding place in Inuyasha's hair and sent him off into space.

"When did he show up?"

"Keh, who cares."

:::0:::

It was Sango who sat up first. She had lain for some time in a stunned condition, sure that the sudden release from pain had been an indication of her immanent death. The beginnings of cramp brought on by her doubled over position caused her to move cautiously into a more comfortable one. She looked sadly over at Miroku, who was laying face down a short distance away, his bare right hand stretched out before him.

"Miroku," she called softly, "Miroku!"

"Does this mean we have at last died together?" He mumbled into the ground.

"Miroku, look at your hand!"

"Huh?" He lifted his head and brought his hand towards his face. He stared for a moment and swiftly rose to his knees, his gore bespattered face incredulous. He looked up; a dawning joy flickered and was dimmed as he caught sight of the still body of Kohaku. "Oh, Sango..."

Kohaku sighed and shifted slightly. He was deeply asleep and slept on oblivious to the sounds of laughter and frantic weeping going on right next to him.

By the time the morning was halfway advanced they had all gathered by Kaede's hut. Kohaku was awake but confused. He remembered little of the past two years and no one seemed in any great hurry to fill him in. He could not help noticing the way Sango held on to the Buddhist Priest though.

Kagome went to Kaede and pulled a little bag from her pocket made of a handkerchief. "Here, Kaede-sama, here is all that remains of Kikyou-sama in this world. It is for her shrine."

Kaede accepted the small packet with a bent head. "Thank-you, I did not hope for this. Now she will rest at home."

Inuyasha watched silently and slid his arm about Kagome. "That's over then, come."


	7. Epilogue

Epilogue

They walked together up the shrine steps and down to where the Goshinboku stood. Kagome looked about her. "So we're back where we started from." He brought her body against his, kissing her briefly but leaning back to examine her also. "Inuyasha, we have not had a honeymoon yet."

"You mean a week in the country?"

She smiled and shook he head, "No, we've had too many of those. Just some time alone. If you could choose, where would you go?" She looked at him expectantly as he looked down and fidgeted with her hands.

"Now that I have you, I would like to go to the north. My mother's family is from there originally and I feel a great interest in seeing it. And then, after that we could do Tokyo in your time."

"But you don't like my time."

"Well, This time I won't be dying of jealousy. Will I, Kagome?"

"Ooh, but I like you jealous." She laughed at his expression and relented. "No, I don't think you need to worry. Were would we live? I can't camp out in the forest forever. And I need to see to my future."

Inuyasha blinked, his golden eyes wide and his face smoothing to an almost slack-jawed look. The only other times she had seen his face so relaxed he had been deeply asleep. It made him seem very young.

"Well, I do have a home you know. A house," he paused a moment as if thinking, "with a garden."

It was her turn to gaze wide-eyed. "You certainly never mentioned it."

He had the grace to redden a bit. "I don't go there very often. I couldn't take you there before and I really prefer to be out in the open."

"Why couldn't we go there before?"

"You weren't mine then. And shared no physical part of me. There are rules about these things you know." He ticked them of on his clawed digits: "Blood relative with invitation, possession or pet, prey or mate." He smiled at her so beautifully that her breath caught. "That would be you."

He stood, drawing her to her feet beside him. "Want to see?"

"Huh?"

He smirked, grabbed her hand and removed what appeared to be a small, flat rock from the front of his suikan and held it before his eyes, studying it a moment.

Kagome leaned forward for a better look. It was a small flat rock.

He glanced at her sidelong. "It's been in contact with me long enough."

He casually flipped the rock to land on the ground and stepped on it. There was the faint sound of a bubble popping and the air around them changed.

Kagome found herself standing on a narrow stone path in a twilit spring garden. She was facing a small but exquisite house with paper shutters lit with the mellow glow of oil lamps within. Off to her left she could hear the trickle of water underscored by a bamboo tapper and smell the scent of lilies.

"Keh, it never changes. Come on, I'll show you inside." He shifted his grip to pull Kagome by her wrist up the short path to the house. The door slid back smartly and he stepped inside—barely pausing to let Kagome step out of her shoes.

A hallway floored in dully gleaming wood met her gaze. Shoji screens stood partially open to reveal rooms to either side. She paused in the doorway of one to see pristine tatami mats, an elegant standing screen at the far end depicting a storm at sea. There were shelves and drawers built into one wall and a freestanding chest baring a few, very tasteful ornaments.

Kagome stared at Inuyasha who seemed rather self-conscious. "My father had it done up when my mother was alive. I never bothered to change it." He shrugged, "Hell, I usually just run in to get a fresh suit of clothes on and leave."

"You've been changing into new clothes?"

"What the fuck did you think I was doing? Did you think my clothes just repaired themselves overnight? Jeez!" He rolled his eyes.

"You mean that you could have gone to this beautiful house at any time?"

Inuyasha seemed pleased and a little surprised. "Do you like it? Is it good enough? I think there's food here somewhere. Not as good as ramen. But hey—the spirits here are really old and my father had trouble just getting the house up to date."

Kagome, who had just been about to exclaim over how the house was like an exhibit in a museum she had once seen bit her tongue and settled for "It's just perfect!"

There was food, in the room that was beyond the panel screen. There, the shutters were drawn back on two sides, leaving it open to the twilit veranda and the small garden beyond. Innumerable little lanterns hung among the flowering trees lighting a particularly graceful branch here, creating a lush and mysterious shadow there.

A large futon was in the center of the room with two small black lacquer tables and a hibachi lit before it. They ate and Kagome asked a lot of questions while Inuyasha alternately teased and carefully replied. No, the house did not rely on the rock: there only needed to be some natural object that had been consecrated to the purpose and kept in constant contact with him from one dawn to the next. Yes, there was a nice place to bathe. He felt confident that the house worked just as well in her time as this one. Yes, most human-appearing youkai had some version of the same thing depending on their power. Yes he thought Sesshoumaru probably had a palace. No, he did not want to wangle an invitation to it.

He finally wound an arm around her waist, pulling her against him. "You know, I think we talk too damn much."

"What?"

"I keep getting distracted from what I want to say." He then proceeded to tell her what he needed so badly to say without any words at all.

It took a long time

_The Next Beginning:  
Dogs in Tokyo_


End file.
